In conclusion, "budou", in my opinion, translates to "the martial way" only because it's use during war times. It has become a jargon that identifies itself to "martial arts" or "the art of self-defense". Therefore "budou", from my point of view, translates to "the way of stopping arms" which could then be taken as "the way of non-aggression" or "the way of peace".

What do you think?

According to "Kanji-gen" (a Japanese Kanji reference), that translation is based on an erractic notation in a Chinese text (Shunju Sashi-den). The character on the bottom which means "stop" in current usage is from the character for foot, and with the character for halberd the kanji "bu" originally meant "to advance with a spear (halberd)", which is a pretty good description of "war", if you ask me.